JUNE, MAY, 2020
VANQUISH CARTOON VILLAINS—
THE CRUX OF A CRUCIAL STORY RELATIONSHIP
By: Alice Orr
I love a good villain.
He does so much for a
story. He gives the
reader someone to
hate, which engenders
emotional involvement,
commitment to the story, pages
turning. He gives your hero someone to
struggle against. He personifies the conflict
that electrifies your narrative.
With so much weight to carry,
your villain must be formidable. Otherwise,
your intelligent, active, resourceful
hero would make short shrift of this
adversary and be on her way. The story is
over then, because, when the conflict
resolves, reader interest wanes, and your
tale is done.
Introduce your adversary situation
early. Get the conflict started
straight off. If this is a mystery, don‘t
reveal his identity till almost the end to
keep the tension hook set deep in the
reader. If this is suspense, unmask the
villain earlier on, at least in part, to establish
how formidable he is.
We see this evil force on a collision
course with the protagonist. The
character we have come to care most
about and with whom we identify. She
doesn‘t share our insight and has no idea
who her adversary might be. She only
knows she‘s in serious trouble, maybe
physical danger too.
Our hero may know this person,
may even trust him. Our apprehension
for her mounts as she unwittingly exposes
herself to peril. The story hook
digs deeper into us with every page.
Meanwhile, we must be just as deeply
captured by the villain‘s motivation.
For this reason, a wise storyteller
avoids the Devils-Made-Him-Do-It
Villain. He‘s a psychopath or a
sociopath, or on whichever path his sick
psyche compels him to take. He‘s propelled
along that path by his demons. He
does evil because it is in his nature to do
evil, and that‘s that.
He’s scary for sure, but his motivation
lacks complexity. What further
fascinating depths does a head case provide
for your writerly imagination to explore?
And, we have seen him too often.
There are far too many like him in the
real world, and in the work of aspiring
novelists.
The prevalence of human monsters
in contemporary life encourages
authors to portray them. But this villain
has become fictionally boring. We‘ve
read so many like him that he‘s dejà vu.
Your twist on his twistedness must be
truly original to stand out from such a
crowd.
Plus, I repeat for emphasis, he
behaves the way he does because he
has no real choice. No nuanced confession
is legitimately required. He‘s a nut
job, end of story, which makes him twodimensional.
He does evil because he
gets an insane kick out of it. He is a cartoon.
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